Posted on 11/27/2007 3:39:26 PM PST by Libloather
If these are indeed available on DVD, I’m tempted to get them for my own kids - all Sesame Street age. Mr. Hooper, the “imaginary” Mr. Snuffleuppagus, da count (ah ahhhh!). It at least represents a step forward in civility and social norms - even among the psychologists who controlled the content - by taking a step back in time.
A Little Brown Boy takes a Bath for instance.
A wonderful natural storyteller. I loved (and still do) the Muppet Show, Sesame Street, and Fraggle Rock, as well as the various Muppet movies, The Dark Crystal, and Labyrinth.
I got the first collection on DVD last year, and boy, what a shock when I watched -- there was Bill Cosby, in character as an ad agency boss, smoking a cigar like it was nothing. Then there was a skit in which a boss (played by Skip Hinnant) invites his secretary to take dictation while sitting on his lap (of course, he drags out a large chair-sized word "lap" that leggy actress Judy Graubart lounged on. And then there was the "Jennifer of The Jungle" bits, in which Graubart played jungle girl Jennifer, whose implied spouse was Paul...a gorilla (click here for YouTube example).
The guys who wrote Electric Company eventually went on to write for M*A*S*H, Alice, and other primetime shows, and they occasionally snuck some adult-oriented gags in under the kids' radar and over their heads. But that was in the age of innocence, before MTV morphed from a channel showing sexually explicit videos into a channel showing sexually active young adults frolic, and when cartoons on TV were for kids to watch on Saturday morning rather than tagged with Viewer Discretion warnings on Sunday nights. Never in a million years would I expect of them what was on Family Guy a couple of weeks ago: the teenage Griffin daughter took a package of hot dogs out of the refrigerator, and before going into her room looked down at it and said: "I'm going to pretend you're the New York Knicks!" In that kind of atmosphere, one has to rethink what was meaningless in years past.
“We might not be able to create a character like Oscar today,”
No kidding! The character for Oscar was loosely based on my father, God rest his soul, if that’s not patently offensive for the ‘pro-tolerance’ crew on SS.
Oscar was clearly a right-winger, across the board, who just didn’t put up with any of PC crap that they were dishing at the CTW. When people said stupid stuff he simply called them on it. I never knew what happened to Oscar. I assume that he was sent out to rehab or anger management during the Clinton years.
I’m guessing that our green, fuzzy friend was packing some serious heat under his lid and was possibly waiting for an opportunity of some doof, such as Big Bird, to come skipping across into his personal domain so that he could open up on them. In a PC gesture of goodwill and reconciliation, Oscar could have served up the giant bird to sustain the homeless that were imported to Sesame Street over the course of an entire season. Then again, I suppose they would demure (or at least be forced to) at the prospect of a ‘non-vegan’ meal.
Oscar and the Cookie Monster were the best! The program went downhill when they started applying racial and gender quotas to the characters.
Diversity sucks - and so does Elmo!
My kids love Mayberry. They also really dig Mr. Ed, I Love Lucy, The Beverly Hillbillies and Bullwinkle and Rocky.
All on DVD! No cable. No antennae. No ‘realtime’ TV. And they’re very happy children!
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